Ex with Benefits (sequel to Roommates with Benefits)

Maybe someday

CHAPTER 12 - MAYBE SOMEDAY

TARA'S POV

"It's everywhere. Every fucking where. Why aren't we covering this?!" The newsroom's manager shouted as he nearly broke his IPad by slamming his fist onto it to show me the tape, causing me to grimace, more at the sight of the person on the screen than at his tone. He's been ranting on and on about this damn thing since half an hour now, I just let him. 

First because, he does that, whenever he's not happy with what we do, he comes in and bursts my eardrums. I'd wonder why doesn't he take it against Jeremy, seeing as he is not only anchorman, but also news director, so technically more responsible than I for what we broadcast, but I guess he knows that losing Jeremy Talbot would mean shooting himself in the foot. This whole freaking newsroom bases off Jeremy's audience and expertise. No Jeremy, no newsroom.

The other reason why I let my boss shout at me like this, it's because I knew what was he talking about, and right now, my main concern wasn't that we haven't covered this shit, my main concern was that the identity of the person in the video hasn't been discovered ... yet.

24 hours ago, a tape was released on the main porn sites, and it's already viral, everywhere you'll hear talking about it, Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and every other damn social network, they are all clogged with links and comments about that tape, and the biggest question is ... who is she? 

Who is that woman that does all those things? Who is that slut that screams nonstop, moaning like a cat in heat, who is that whore that lets the man do to her all those things, even pushes him to? Who is she?

Nobody knows. It's the mystery of the moment, it's so huge that even TV got onto it, it doesn't matter that it's a sex tape, and it's not supposed to be on every fucking news report, especially not at certain hours, it's just there. It's become such a huge phenomenon that media are going crazy. Like I said, nothing gets more social attention as much as a sex scandal does, nothing, nothing sells more than sex.

That's why now I was here, enduring my employer's rant about how are we supposed to dig in the story, beat our competition in any way possible, try the uncharted routes, like always, in order to be always on top, to arrive first, before everybody else.

"Derek, it's not our style, don't you think?" I tried mending. "We ... we're a serious news channel, our viewers love that we analyze and report serious stuff, not ... nonsensical trends. This is gonna wane soon enough, I'm sure." No, I'm not. I just hope so. Meanwhile a certain jerk should worry about his safety. Ah, if I get to him, if I get to him ... stupid, moronic, selfish, sick bastard.

He wanted to scare me, didn't he? He did it on purpose. He leaked an edited version of the tape, where the woman isn't recognizable, every scene where you should see her face has been cut or blurred, you see only her body and what she does, but you have no clue about her face. I know why he did it. It's a warning, it's to say, you're safe for now, but the next? It's meant to intimidate me. But if he thinks I'm so easily scared, he doesn't know me one fucking bit.

"It's the news of the fucking week!" my boss protested.

"It's been just 24 hours, Derek. It'll wane in the blink of an eye, I'm sure it will." Hopefully.

"It doesn't matter!" he slammed his fist onto my desk, "I want this in my main news report! Tonight!"

I sighed, rubbing my temples, as I thought over my next words twice before saying them. "No. No, I won't put this crap in my show." I work hard for these news reports to be accurate, unbiased and always relevant, I don't bow to ratings, I care about the three cornerstones of news reporting: truth, accuracy, relevance. Anything that doesn't respect these points is crap for me, and my staff agrees.